


Riverdale Writing Challenge 2019: Elegantmoonchild

by elegantmoonchild



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Riverdale Writing Challenge, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 11:54:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17263736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elegantmoonchild/pseuds/elegantmoonchild
Summary: A collection of one shots as my participation in the 2019 Riverdale Writing Challenge group.Tags and ships subject to change. Rating is Mature to encompass any future content, however each one shot will have its own rating and ship information written in the notes.





	Riverdale Writing Challenge 2019: Elegantmoonchild

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the collection of one shots I have written for the 2019 Riverdale Writing Challenge! I'm hoping my participation in this project will help encourage me to write more this year, and I greatly appreciate you stumbling across this series and giving it a shot! Kudos and positive comments are always welcome but not required. 
> 
> To kick off 2019, I have decided to make this first one shot rated Teen and the ship is Bughead.
> 
> Thank you again for reading, and I hope you enjoy this one shot! Stay tuned for future project fulfillments!

**New Year's Day**

 

Betty bent down to reach for an empty plastic cup, left discarded on the hardwood floor of her dining room somewhere between midnight and two am last night. A groan escaped her lips, her body aching from the late night and subsequent early morning, her head in equal discomfort as the sugary aftermath of all the champagne from the party hit her with a dull throbbing pain.

It had been Veronica’s idea to throw an all-out New Year’s Eve extravaganza in their brand new apartment, an admittedly lovely piece of real estate located in a highly-sought after part of Manhattan. The girls considered it their kick-off to true independence, branching out from the dorms of NYU after two years of stuffy shared rooms and crowded, dingy communal bathrooms.

 _A toast to 2019, the year of us_ , Veronica had proclaimed loudly just before midnight, her plastic flute of bubbles and promise held high amongst the crowd of their closest friends. When the ball had dropped in Times Square, an illuminating beacon of silver and sparkle and hope blown up on the big screen of their television, the party had erupted into a series of cheers and hollers.

And then there came the midnight kiss, the first of what many couples had hoped would be many.

Smiling to herself, Betty recalled the warm fuzzy feeling in her tummy she had felt, lips pressed against her new boyfriend’s, a romance she had been without for so long.

Betty threw the discarded cup into the white plastic trash bag in her hand, collecting more scraps of confetti, party hats, and food stained snack plates as she snaked her way through their kitchen. She tried to be quiet, eyeing a snoring Veronica and Archie curled up together on the butter soft leather couch, passed out intertwined sometime after the party had ended. She envied their rest, the need for cleanliness and order overruling her desire to drop onto the nearest surface and fall asleep.

_Luckily, he understood._

On the other end of the living room, tiptoeing around the other pieces of furniture that had been shoved aside and rearranged to accommodate for the growing party, stood Jughead Jones, reaching up onto the fireplace mantle for a handful of half-empty cups. She watched as he poured the contents into one cup, consolidating them together in a careful stack before dumping it all into his own trash bag.

His dark hair was disheveled, strands of black that she knew to be downy soft stuck out at odd ends, no doubt the result of her fingers as she remembered the passionate way they had kissed when the evening turned into twilight, twilight turning into dawn. As the crowd had dissolved around them, Betty found it harder and harder for her to care about goodbyes, too caught up in the momentous sensation of the holiday.

Fortunately, her friends hadn’t seemed to mind. In fact, they had encouraged it, laughing to themselves as they tossed out casual goodbyes to Betty as they walked out of the apartment, heading downstairs to hail busy city cabs. Normally, Betty would be the one to make sure everyone who left had a safe sober means of getting home, but not this year.

This year, she had a reason to celebrate just for herself.

It had been years since Betty had found herself immersed in the kind of relationship that felt… _right._ There had been many false starts, dates with guys that seemed promising with no endgame, no closure when they ended. She had been left wanting, feeling the keen sharp of loneliness as she watched her close friends find their significant others as she did her best to feel happy for them.

The truth was, however, she felt left out, alone and cold amongst a sea of warm love. Veronica and Archie were the most obvious, their PDA always over-the-top, so much so that Betty was nearly used to it. Still, there were spells where their obvious affection was enough to echo the lonely within her, the hollow pain reverberating in her chest.

She thought she could rely on her other best friend, Kevin Keller, to stay solo with her, two singletons who would laugh and distract themselves with their private jokes as Veronica and Archie made out somewhere nearby. Then he got a boyfriend, a really nice guy named Joaquin that Betty couldn’t even pretend to hate, and she was left alone once more.

Even her cold-hearted cousin Cheryl managed to find love, finally succumbing to the pursuits of spunky Toni Topaz a few weeks into the summer.

Betty thought she’d be alone forever, forced to walk amongst her friends with a fake smile as she watched them bask in the love she wished for more than anything.

That all changed the day she met _him._

Meeting Jughead had been the highlight of her year, even if it had happened with two months left to 2018. Talking to him, just being near him had felt right, easy and comfortable. It was like meeting someone who could see the most hidden parts of her and act like it wasn’t a big deal. He was calm, even if a bit neurotic on his own, but his presence stilled the anxiety that she had been living with for years. They had known each other for less time than all of her closest friends, but somehow he had filled a void she didn’t know had been there.

Jughead carried over his nearly full trash bag and two empty bottles of prosecco, heading casually toward the growing pile of bags beside the front door. When he passed by her, he shot her an easy smile and leaned down, pressing his lips to hers in a simple, quick way that felt… _natural._

Like they had been doing it for years.

Like they would be doing it for years.

Like he had nothing to rush because there was no reason to leave.

She felt a lump form in her throat, sensed a few tears begin to well up in her eyes as she realized for the first time in days, months, years she was happy. Truly happy. Easily, without complication, happy.

Searching through the crowds of the city, looking up and down in busy bars and loud school events, scanning the sea of people everywhere she went to find that one person who her gut just screamed _the one_ had gotten her nowhere. And she had felt so hopeless.

But then he arrived, no frills and no drama, a knight with no need for armor, and she had found peace at last.

“It’s already looking a lot better,” he whispered loudly to her, looking over the giant mass of trash they had collected from the party and the now tidy space of her living room.

She smiled to herself, thinking back on all of the disappointments of 2018 and the new spring of hope she had felt having him in her life, finally sharing her first New Year’s kiss amongst her other fortunate friends who had been privy to that reward for so long without her, and finding someone who would skip sleep, skip sex, and stay up into the early hours of the morning with her cleaning up bottles on New Year’s Day.

_It really is looking a lot better._


End file.
